Alan Ritchson has built a career playing men who solve problems with their fists. From Reacher’s wandering vigilante to this new Netflix offering, he specializes in characters who don’t talk much but hit hard. War Machine gives him plenty of opportunities for both, though the film surrounding his performance has critics divided on whether it’s efficient action cinema or generic streaming filler.
Ritchson plays a character known only as “81,” because in this movie’s version of Army Ranger training, names are for people who aren’t trying to be lethal weapons. He’s a nearly aged-out recruit with PTSD and a Silver Star, haunted by the death of his brother (Jai Courtney) in Kandahar two years earlier. The opening scene establishes this tragedy with maximum efficiency—brothers make plans, explosions happen, one survives to carry the guilt. It’s the kind of backstory that writes itself, and War Machine isn’t interested in subverting expectations.
What it is interested in is putting Ritchson through physical hell. Director Patrick Hughes, who made The Expendables 3 and both Hitman’s Bodyguard films, understands how to stage action sequences that showcase his star’s massive physique. Ritchson bulked up significantly for Reacher, and War Machine puts that bulk to use in training montages that include walking at the bottom of pools with heavy weights—the kind of grueling exercise that looks great in trailers and makes audiences feel lazy for watching Netflix on their couches.
The plot kicks in when 81 and his squad of nameless recruits (seriously, everyone has numbers) encounter a giant alien robot during a training exercise in Colorado. The “War Machine” of the title is a bulky, boxy contraption that looks like a Roomba with legs and a bad attitude. It transforms from a crashed spacecraft into a killing machine armed with lasers and grenades, because apparently extraterrestrial invaders watched Transformers and thought “we can do that, but less charismatic.”
Ritchson’s performance is getting the best reviews out of the film. IGN notes his “ferocious mass casualty event of a second act” and praises his mix of “tortured vulnerability and hulkish heroics.” Decider is less kind, calling the film a “Bore Machine” and suggesting Ritchson hasn’t quite achieved “modern-Schwarzenegger status” yet. The Hollywood Reporter admits his charisma “can’t save this hopelessly basic Netflix sci-fi actioner” but acknowledges his physical presence is compelling even when the dialogue isn’t.
That dialogue includes gems like “Well, it sure as shit ain’t from this one” when someone asks if the robot is from another planet. Ritchson delivers these lines with straight-faced commitment, which is really all you can do when the script is fighting you. He’s at his best in the action sequences, particularly a climactic showdown involving an excavator that allows him to bellow “You wanna piece of me?!” at an alien machine.
The film’s second act is where it comes alive, with the War Machine attacking in earnest and Ritchson’s squad getting systematically demolished. There’s a chase scene through rapids that stands out for its mercilessness, and the R rating is well-deserved for the “grisly images and strong violence” on display. Bodies burn, limbs detach, heads explode—this isn’t family-friendly sci-fi, and Ritchson seems more comfortable in this brutal register than in the film’s quieter moments.
War Machine wants to be Predator with robots, and it occasionally succeeds. The problem is that the robot itself is visually uninspired—ugly and dumb, as one review puts it, with no personality or nifty weaponry to make it memorable. Ritchson is fighting a CGI construct that looks like it was designed by committee, which makes his physical commitment even more impressive. He’s giving 100% to a film that maybe deserves 70%.
The ending teases a sequel, because of course it does. Ritchson’s 81 survives, his trauma partially resolved through the therapeutic application of alien combat, ready for the next deployment. Whether audiences want that sequel depends on whether they find Ritchson’s star power sufficient compensation for the film’s generic construction. He’s good in this—charismatic, committed, physically imposing. But War Machine is a reminder that even the most dedicated performance can’t transcend material that refuses to transcend itself.
Alan Ritchson remains a compelling action star in search of a franchise worthy of his talents. War Machine isn’t it, but it proves he can carry a film even when the film doesn’t deserve him.
Stream War Machine on Netflix now and decide for yourself if Alan Ritchson’s charisma is enough to power this sci-fi actioner. Then watch Reacher to see him at his best.
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